Ministry presents emergency plan for Alcudia gas plant

There are three gas plants in the Balearics which need a special emergency plan to prevent risks, and the government presented the first of these plans, for the Repsol plant in Alcudia, yesterday. During the presentation, minister Josep Maria Costa stressed that the drawing up of the plan had nothing to do with the events in Toulouse (France), where 29 people died and more than 2'000 were injured when a petro-chemical plant exploded last Friday. The plan, he said, was the fruit of several months of “exhaustive work” by a team of specialists. The plans for the other two plants, which also belong to Repsol and are in Palma and Ibiza, will be ready within the next few months, Costa said. The minister went on to say the plan specifies what has to be done in the case of an accident, from the smallest mishap to the biggest one imaginable. It takes into account the characteristics of the area, and indicates action to be taken using all the resources of all the different administrations. Costa was quick to point out that the fact that such a plan had been drawn up did not mean that the installations were a danger to the population, as the risk factor in such companies is “minimal” but “this does not mean that preventive measures should not be taken in case something should happen at a future date.” Costa went on to say that the plans fell within the emergency contingencies for chemical risk situations as specified in European directives. European guidelines also state that there should be contingency plans for fighting forest fires, floods and also for the transport of dangerous cargoes. Costa pointed out that these plans should have been drawn up as early as 1994, as recommended by the European Union, and he stressed the fact that he gave the matter priority when he became minister, as “the question of safety is of the utmost importance for the people of the Balearics.” He said that the level of resources was good in the Balearics, although he added “they are always insufficient.” Questioned about a hypothetical terrorist attack in the Balearics, the ministry's director general Antoni Torres said that everything to do with terrorism was a State matter, and therefore the Balearic government would put all its resources at the disposal of the central administration.